A Desire for 9 to 5: Australians' Preference for a Standard Working Week

ABSTRACT

The ‘standard’ working week in Australia has been gradually disappearing over the last several decades. This phenomenon has generated much debate on the conflict between work and life. Despite the debate about and recognition of lengthening hours among full-time workers, little is known of Australians’ working-time preferences. This article asks if the work-life conflict is the result of workers’ desire to spend more time at work or if it is because they currently lack the means to achieve their preferred hours. Using the Negotiating the Lifecourse (NLC) survey this article examines the current and preferred hours of workers, particularly in relation to whether they have a desire to change their current work hours. It then goes on to look at those people who are unable to achieve their preferred working hours, and focuses on people who are working longer hours than desired. The research finds that workers' preferences tend toward the standard working week, where men prefer to work around 40 hours a week, women without children around 30 hours a week and women with children prefer 28 hours a week on average. Several demographic and work factors contribute to whether a worker has a mismatch between their current and preferred hours. Three factors are identified as contributing to a worker being over employed: age, length of hours and share of work in the household. This article provides evidence that those working long hours do not want to be, and on the whole Australians want to work a ‘standard’ week.